Учитель английского языка МБОУ СОШ № 2 ст. Новопокровской Абрамов Яков Саркисович

Canterbury’s museums and galleries

Canterbury’s four museums are situated in the city centre and provide a comprehensive introduction to the city’s history and development.

The Museum of Canterbury

The Museum of Canterbury, in Stour street, occupies a medieval flint building which in its time has served as home of a notoriously greedy, 12th-century moneylender, Poor Priests’ Hospital, a workhouse and an orphanage. Recently renovated, the museum has something for everyone, offering many interactive exhibits, including a wartime Blitz experience and medieval discovery gallery, illustrating the history of Canterbury from the earliest settlements to the end of the last century. There are galleries and displays devoted to those connected with Canterbury as diverse as Rupert Bear, author Joseph Conrad and cartoon characters Bagpuss and The Clangers.

The Roman Museum

The Roman era is covered in detail at the Roman Museum in Butchery Lane. Visitors descend to the level of a 2nd-century street and can see reconstructions of the shops in the market place and the apartments of the large townhouse which once stood on this site. A fine mosaic floor miraculously survived over-building and the bombing of 1942 and this provides the highlight of the exhibition. Young visitors will enjoy playing the games which amused Roman children 1600 years ago and handling real artefacts in a “touch the past” experience.

Visitors to the West Gate Museum can climb to the battlements to see this view of the city

The West Gate, dating from c The West Gate, dating from c. 1375, is the most impressive surviving feature of the city’s ancient defences. The only one of the eight original gates, it has survived mainly because it served as Canterbury’s gaol from the 15th century until 1829. There is a grand view of the city from the battlements which project in places so that defenders could pour hot liquids on their enemies. The small museum tells the tale of Canterbury’s more violent past exhibiting arms and armour as well as items such as manacles and the old gallows, relics of the time when the gate served as the gaol.

The Royal Museum and Art Gallery

The Royal Museum and Art Gallery occupies the first floor of the half-timbered Beany Institute in the High Street. Мr Beaney was а native of Canterbury who made а fortune in Australia and in 1897 paid for the building to house the library, museum and art gallery. Today the museum’s galleries display the city's collection of paintings. Оnе of the galleries is devoted to the Victorian painter, Thomas Sidney Cooper, who lived in Canterbury and was fаmоus for his studies of cattle, while another is dedicated to special exhibitions. Еxаmрlеs of porcelain and other fine decorative art, manу by local craftsmen, аrе also оn display. Entrance to the Royal Museum and Art Gallery is free.

The Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction

The Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction is located in the medieval St Margaret’s Church in St Margaret’s Street. This audio-visual experience allows visitors to join Geoffrey Chaucer’s band of medieval pilgrims on their journey from London’s Tabard Inn to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The latest technology provides the sights, sounds and even smells of 14th century England, while the pilgrims tell their tales, some tragic, others comical. Commentary is supplied in six languages in addition to English, and there is also a children’s version (though this is in English only).

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